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Resurrect the ReadyBoost Cache Delete on Reboot Thread

microsoft.public.windows.vista.performance maintenance

After reading several threads regarding this issue from 2008, and seeing no real solutions, I felt I had little choice but to resurrect it for my own sake. It's now 2010, and apparently I have the same issue with the same lack of solution.

I have ReadyBoost enabled on a brand new, ReadyBoost-compatible 8GB OCZ Rally2 USB flash disk. However, upon every reboot, the cache file is completely deleted and recreated from scratch. That is to say, it doesn't just write it to disk and re-cache it after the reboot: it removes it completely and starts caching on-the-fly once again. This is confirmed by event logs ("A ReadyBoost cache was successfully deleted on the device (OCZ RALLY2).") and the fact that the device (mapped to X:) is empty for about a minute after logging in after reboot. This is not optimal, as it reduces the potential performance gain.

Now, I have read various things. In no particular order:

- Recreating the cache every boot is by design for security reasons, particularly for businesses.
- Many users claim that their cache is NOT deleted when rebooting, and is thus persistent (as I wish it to be).
- ReadyBoost is dependant on Superfetch to function (properly, at least)
- SuperFetch may cause the ReadyBoost cache to be deleted at shutdown or suspend.

Using a small utility called ReadyBoost Monitor (there are a few by that name, actually), I can see that with SuperFetch disabled, the ReadyBoost cache doesn't seem to exceed 20-30MB, regardless of reserved space on the flash device, but it is still cleared at shutdown. With SuperFetch enabled, it caches around 400MB+ and, of course, clears it at shutdown.

The preceeding is basically my collected knowledge on the issue, what little there is of it. My question is simple: Is there any way to prevent the deletion of the ReadyBoost cache? It seems to me that if it is by design, it is ultimately useless as it will never develop enough of a cache to properly improve disk performance. Admittedly, should I fix the cache delete issue, I would still be confused as to why, after formatting and enabling ReadyBoost, it fills the cache to the max, immediately clears it and continues to cache up to about 400MB... and of course clearing when I reboot...

I know this a wall of text, and much of it is confused and jumbled, but that's where my head is at, presently. Any further knowledge or ideas for solutions would be greatly appreciated.

ReadyBoost operates in conjunction with RAM and Superfetch. While
Superfetch applies caching to the page file or system DLLS, ReadyBoost
caching is applied to all disk content - performance enhancement depends
primarily on two factors, 1. Type of disk activity - random (non-sequential)
I/O is directed to ReadyBoost and sequential to the HD and 2. The device
performance (Read/write throughput) must meet a specific "minimum" which
generally exceeds the specs of the HD - A reason why a device may function
as ReadyBoost on a laptop and not on a desktop since desktops usually have
higher specs HDs.

Checking device properties indicates the amount of memory reserved and not
actual size of data - the cache is encrypted and can only be read by the
computer (repeat- computer) upon which the cache was created - reason for
encryption is that the data is not deleted when the device is removed.
Currently a ReadyBoost device is limited to a maximum 4094 MB. If you are
using an 8 gig device, 4 can be reserved for ReadyBoost and the remaining
memory for "normal" purposes.

While I appreciate the info, I'm not sure how this is particularly relevant. Is that response something more than a copy/paste of someone's general overview of ReadyBoost? I fail to see any further information about why the cache is being deleted.

Thanks for the reply, all the same.

EDIT: After looking at it more closely... apparently that response is a bot. Weird. Clearly I'm new to the forum. That said, does no one have any insight on my problem?

I have been searching for a way to stop the readyboost cache from being deleted since 2008. Its very detrimentalk to system startup times when your 2GB readyboost cache keeps deleteing itself and re-creating on system reboot.

I am on Windows 7 now and was hoping that this would have been a Vista only related proble - but sadly not.

If there is some way of getting readyboost to simply use the existing cache rather than delete and re-created the cache - please someone let us know.

At least with Windows 7 its fairly rare to have to reboot - and when the system goes to sleep - and then wakes up - it uses the existing cache.

I am using XP Mode for quite a quite few legacy systems that I need to work with and support - and since installing and using that my reboot frequency has increased - oh well - so of course this issue is now rearing its ugly head again.

Why is it that when the system reboots - it deletes and rebuilds the cache? Doesnt make any sense.